Blackstone Valley

An Upton contractor has been assessed a $40,150 penalty by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection for violating state asbestos regulations when he demolished a residential property he owned in Franklin.

Central Massachusetts professionals are taking new jobs and getting promoted at companies like Estate Preservation Law Offices, Avidia Bank, AdCare Hospital and Banjo Health.

The unemployment rate in the city of Worcester dropped a full percentage point from February to March, hitting its lowest level since the coronavirus pandemic began.

In Worcester Business Journal's annual list of the most influential people in the Central Massachusetts economy, the Power 50, one-third of those listed have ties to the manufacturing industry.

Power dynamics in the Central Massachusetts business community made two major shifts in 2021, due to the two major events upending the entire global community.

L.L. Bean is planning to open a shop in the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley in Millbury, the famed Maine retailer announced on Thursday.

Discern’d Cannabis Purveyors, a planned pot shop in Grafton, has received a provisional state license and has plans to open this fall.

The Gov. Charlie Baker Administration announced on Friday it was allocating $433,381 to three Central Massachusetts towns newly designated as Green Communities under the state’s program.

Primerica, Inc., a Georgia-based financial-services company with several outposts in Central Mass., including Oxford and Millbury, plans to acquire 80% of Florida firm e-TeleQuote Limited, a senior health insurance distributor of Medicare-related insurance policies for $600 million.

The properting on which a longtime family-run hotel in Uxbridge, the Quaker Inn, sits has sold for $1.8 million.